Mendoza’s Elite Reds and Drinking in Valpolicella Superiore: Weekly Tasting Report (March 27-April 2)

We rated 632 wines from seven countries over the past week, with Executive Editor Jim Gordon tasting the stellar wines of Argentina’s Viña Cobos far from their source, yet at the home base of their creator, Paul Hobbs in Sonoma County, California. These Mendoza wines, primarily 2021 reds and three outstanding whites, highlight the expertise of the Hobbs team and the excellent terroir of the region’s higher-elevation vineyards.

Nearly perfect is one of Argentina’s most sought-after wines, the Viña Cobos Malbec Mendoza Cobos 2021. This small-production gem is made from selected lots of grapes from different vineyards, mostly coming from Chanares and Hobbs Estate but with a small portion of fruit from Zingaretti. It’s a great wine to drink now or hold.

Practically equal in their eye-opening concentration and balance are three other Viña Cobos reds, including the powerful, stylish Hobbs Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, the gorgeous Malbec Los Arboles Valle de Uco Chañares Estate 2021 and the cabernet sauvignon-based blend Volturno 2021, which is silky, layered and focused. The rest of the wines in the Viña Cobos line are equally outstanding in their respective price categories.

Jim, Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk and Tasting Manager Kevin Davy also tasted 124 California wines for this report, with the top-rated bottles dominated by Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel, Sonoma County pinot noir and a few standouts from the Sierra Foothills and elsewhere.

Mountain-grown Bordeaux-style wines from Napa that rose to the top included the harmonious, full-bodied Brandlin Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder 2021, the velvety, delicious Guarachi Atlas Peak Meadowrock Vineyard G 2021 and the textural, well-composed Almacerro Napa Valley Howell Mountain Proprietary Red 2019.

Our team also tasted through the impressive 2022 zinfandel lineup from Robert Biale Vineyard, made mostly from old vines in single vineyards in Napa and Sonoma. The full-bodied and mellow Black Chicken bottling was the top rated, but the rest of the pack was close behind in quality.

Four pinot noirs, a chardonnay and a chenin blanc from Fort Ross Winery in the cool-climate coastal area of Sonoma County caught our tasters’ attention for their rich fruits, firm structures and frequent mineral nuances. Aged longer than most before release, the 2019 pinots are perhaps the most impressive.

When it appears that every wine from California is a chardonnay or cabernet from the north coast counties, it’s good to remember that other grape varieties and other growing districts are also doing outstanding work in the Golden State. The family owned and operated Edio Vineyards in El Dorado County, tucked in the Sierra Foothills, is a great example. Rated as equal in quality to a dozen Napa cabernets are Edio’s grenache and mourvedre 2020s. Also worth a search is their fresh, bitter-almond accented white Rhone-style blend from 2023.

THE DRINKABILITY OF VALPOLICELLA SUPERIORE

Senior Editor Ned Goodwin MW was in Italy over the past week, immersed in a comprehensive tasting of all things Veneto, the country’s largest region in production terms with a diverse array of styles born of a continental climate that nudges sub-alpine in parts. Styles including the mineral-infused Soave, complex Recioto and detailed Prosecco, affirming how different the best are from other sparkling wine styles, alongside rich Amarone that throw down the gauntlet to contemporary notions of drinkability.

The wines that Ned gravitates toward when choosing something to actually drink at the end of the day, however, were more often Valpolicella – and more succinctly, Valpolicella Superiore.

Superiore indicates that a wine must be aged for a minimum of one year and have at least an additional percentage of alcohol than regular Valpolicella DOC wine, with a minimum of 12 percent. Few producers need to worry about the minimum, however, as most wines today easily exceed 14 percent!

Indeed, while regular Valpolicella is often lightweight and frisky, with pithy hints of sour cherry and an alpine cool, Valpolicella Superiore wines are hewn of riper fruit, at times augmented with some appassimento material or grapes that have been dried to concentrate the sugars, enforce the tannins and impart an earthen complexity suggestive of camphor, menthol and forest floor – or less attractive hints of mushroom and volatility when undesirable botrytis has had its way.

The finest Valpolicella Superiores are often from cooler vintages, such as 2016 and, more recently, 2021. It is in these vintages that fealty to place, poise and an eminent drinkability become palpable. The wines are more transparent than those from warmer years like 2015, 2017 or 2020, prized by producers striving to make richer styles born of the drying room, including Amarone and its offspring, Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso.

“Ripasso is too often a clunky style that achieves Superiore’s mandates by running fermenting must over the pomace of Amarone,” Ned said. “This approach attenuates the fermentation to bolster the wine’s strength.”

With this in mind, Ned adored the red fruited pinoté, pumice-like tannins and thirst-slaking freshness of the Bertani Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ognisanti di Novare 2021, a wine that is considerably lower in alcohol and fresher than its peers. He also admired virtually every cuvee submitted by Brigaldara, a Veneto superstar: “Each wine is etched indelibly with regional zip code, while bearing enough weight for flavor without obfuscating freshness. The Brigaldara Valpolicella Superiore Case Vecie 2021 is a benchmark, delivering a sleight of clove, tamarind and cardamon.”

Despite his hesitations when it comes to Ripasso, Ned found plenty to like, particularly I Campi’s brilliant single-vineyard Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore Campo Ciotoli  2021, Fasoli Gino's Valpolicella Ripasso La Corte del Pozzo 20221, the Speri Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore 2021 and minimalist producer Musella’s high-wire Valpolicella Ripasso 2020, which asserts lift with a snort of well-placed volatility. The Brigaldara Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore 2022, meanwhile, is “a brilliant wine that transcends the galumphing heaviness of so many Ripasso as well as the challenges of a very warm year, with assiduous levels of extraction. The result is a wine of consummate refinement, reminding me of a pinot rather than a quasi-Amarone, with its riffs on camphor, strawberry and a hint of sassafras.”

A BELGIAN TOUCH IN THE LOIRE

At his home tasting base near Frankfurt, Germany, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott made an important discovery from the Loire Valley – the offerings of Belgian winemaker Kathleen Van den Berghe. She owns two wine estates, Chateau de Miniere in Bourgueil, an appellation devoted to red wines from the cabernet franc grape, and Chateau de Suronde in the valley of the Layon, a tributary of the Loire where the focus is on dry and naturally sweet chenin blanc.

The Château de Minière Bourgueil Vignes Centenaires de Minière 2020 is the most impressive Loire red wine that Stuart has encountered in many years. Very deep and concentrated, it has stunning stunning elderberry, violet and bark aromas. In spite of its considerable power, the tannins are very fine and the mineral acidity makes it bright and light-footed. Although already delicious, it should age for decades. Scroll through the notes below to see how Van den Berghe also makes sparkling wines (white, pink and red!) from cabernet franc that deserve as much attention as her beautifully crafted reds.

The star of the range from her other property is the Château de Suronde Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru 2021. The Anjou section of the Loire has a long tradition for making naturally sweet wines from shriveled chenin blanc grapes, but with dessert wines out of fashion globally few winemakers take all the trouble to produce masterpieces like this.

At once dense and finely nuanced, it is rippling with dried apricot, floral honey and candied orange aromas. The balance is spot-on right through the very long silky and honeyed finish.

The dry Château de Suronde Anjou Blanc L’Oeuvre 2019 is a marvelous example of what chenin blanc can do as a dry wine. It is concentrated, structured and elegant with intense wet stone minerality at the almost steely finish, The energy suggests this also has many years of life ahead of it. Van den Berghe clearly has a vision of the future of the Loire region that incorporates organic/biodynamic viticulture but plows a very different furrow to the region’s natural wine movement. It is classic in the best sense of that word.

– Jim Gordon, Ned Goodwin MW and Stuart Pigott contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.